Meet the Man Who Keeps You Shopping Online

Using information such as names and ages to details like browsing habits, purchasing history and even email click throughs, marketers in Zalora’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) team are working hard behind the scenes by crunching figures to better understand and engage their customers.

One of the worst and best feedback they have had so far was that someone had to unsubscribe to their mailing list because the emails kept her buying, shared Zalora’s Marketing Manager, CRM, Li Zhiliang, aged 29.

Data-Driven Personalisation

“By using data and analytics, we help drive the online shopping experience for the customer,” he added.

While retailers may have unlimited shelf space online, customers may not be able to browse everything available.

“Data allows us to more effectively target our customers. We will have the option of sending people to the homepage or prioritising what to show them, such as a specific category, theme or range.

“Customers actually demand this personalisation, but you can’t be too ‘scary’ or pushy in your approach. They want to shop more effectively on your site and being able to serve up content that is most relevant for them and letting them explore from there will be able to enhance their experience,” said Zhiliang, who is approaching his fifth year in the company.

A Learning Opportunity

While Zhiliang did not have a fashion background, joining Zalora had been an exciting proposition that allowed him to marry data and consumer psyche when making analysis. To help him do that, he watched fashion shows to better maintain a fashion angle to the analytics.

As for satisfaction, Zhiliang said that fulfillment comes from hearing that people love what they receive in the emails and how it entices them to browse their favourite brands on the website.